alarm bell

See also: alarm-bell

English

Noun

alarm bell (plural alarm bells)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see alarm,‎ bell.
   • 2000, James Hadley Chase, An Ear to the Ground:

     He put his foot on a concealed button under his desk and rang an alarm bell. He always had two strongarm men lolling around in an office down the passage.

2. (figuratively, usually in the plural) A sudden awareness of danger.
   • 1998, Michele Gillespie, Catherine Clinton, Taking off the white gloves: Southern women and women historians

     The specter of women in factories, women in schoolrooms, and women attending — a lot less addressing — public meetings set off alarm bells in the South.

   • 2010, John M Findley, Just Lucky:

     I only got a glimpse of him, but alarm bells went off. He wasn't rushing over to give me a pat on the back for stopping to help.

   • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     England were shipping penalties at an alarming rate - five in the first 15 minutes alone - and with Wilkinson missing three long-distance pots of his own in the first 20 minutes, the alarm bells began to ring for Martin Johnson's men.

Translations

sudden awareness of danger

• Danish: alarmklokke c
• German: Alarmglocke f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: alarmklokke m or f

  Nynorsk: alarmklokke f

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

References

• “alarm bell”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.